It is a bird..It is a plane..No..it is a family man...

This appeared yesterday.. I still cannot stop laughing... :D :D

Agar Main Kahoon...

It is the last days of college... everything is coming to an end finally on 1 June.. an uncertain future beckons :(

The weather was really nice yesterday afternoon..the wind was blowing..it made everyone's shirts fly with it and everyone kept trying to tuck it in with no avail :D

Decided to play aankh micholi... it was superfun.. when it was my turn to catch people, I couldn't so being the good player that I am :D I took off the blindfold and caught K..hehe..stupid me..forgot all the tension and the worries.. others also played chidiya udd :D but I didn't feel like playing that...

While coming back, I listened to one of my favorite songs.. Agar main kahoon from Lakshya.. I just love the innocent lyrics.. especially those lines when the girl says ..Mujhko bhoole se bhi chaand tum na kaho..chand mein to kayee daag hain..mujhe phool na kehna..vo murjhate hain..jugnu bhi na kehna..vo kho jaate hain..

Happy Birthday, A... wish you all the best in life :)

Of Love and Ralationships....

My friend D told me to write something sensible as he thinks I write crap. But politics and films are my only forte', so naturally I will write about them only... but still I thought of writing about Love-a topic I had always wanted to write about it but never did . I absolutely love films, so my understanding of it has been shaped by our overtly melodramatic dramas.The theme of love is the mainstay of our film industry. So, I intend to inform you that the following post is going to be another as I say 'senseless posts', so read at your caution..

Rahul in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai defined love in the most bizarre ways 'Pyaar dosti hai'. Eric Segal in his classic book Love Story says "Love means never having to say sorry". Each of us I believe has our concept of love. You may not agree with mine and I may not agree with yours but nevertheless there would some common ground..

For me Love is something very pure and it has to have three things- Understanding, Sacrifice and Trust.

Understanding among the partners is very important. As they say, someone who can understand your silence, there is no need of words and someone you love knows you better than you know yourself. You remember that scene from Dil Chahta Hai (one of the best films of all time according to me) where Tara (Dimple Kapadia) comes and visits Sid's (Akshay Khanna) place to see his paintings she says " Aaj maine tumhare bare me ek nayi baat jaani hai..jo log tumhe jaante hain vo log bhi tumhe nahi jaante hain..tumhare khaab tum kisi ko nahi batate.. tum logon se milte to zaroor ho lekin tumhari ek alag hi duniya hai.." Would you then blame Sid for loving Tara? A person who could read your complete life in your first meeting, how could anyone not fall in with that person.. That scene which has been my all time favourite scene is a remarkable one..

Love also means sacrifice. I have never understood the possessive love of SRK in Darr.. By forcing someone to love you is absolutely the worst thing ever.. Love means that you are happy in other's happiness..you are prepared to make some compromisess.. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, another of my favourite movie :) I think the character of Vanraj (Ajay Devgan) epitomises this..His love for Nandini (Aishwarya Rai) took him to Italy to reunite her with her lover..He loved her so much that he could not live with out her but he knew she would never be the same Nadini who would never reciprocate his love..Think of it in real life, it is too good to be true but somehow it really shows what love is..there was so much criticism of that unrealistic scene in Kabhi Alvidaa Na Kehnaa.. when Sam (Amitabh Bachhan) says to Maya (Rani) to leave his son as by continuing the marriage she would even deprive Rishi (Abhishek) of the happiness in his life..but I think it was only fair that she should leave Rishi..

Trust too is an important entity in love..If you cannot trust each other then love has no meaning.. In Friends, Emily could never trust Ross after he took Rachel's name instead of hers at their wedding and she laid a precondition that he would never meet Rachel.. when Ross asked her that can she trust him? She said no and their marriage was doomed to fail..

Anyway, I am thinking more and more about it... and

I can already see you *yawning*.. so, enough for now...

19 May, 2009..the day I turned old :(

It is my birthday today :) I have turned 22 today! I don't want to grow up so fast, feel like a buddha. I do not know how to talk to people, how to express myself, how to behave like a 22-year-old! sob!

Anyway, I got two testimonials for the yearbook and I loved both of them. So I thought of putting them today..no, I am not a narcissist but I just felt like putting them here. Thanks to both V and S.

This is what V wrote :)

He is sense and sensibility personified. Talking to him is entertaining and tranquilizing! He is very discerning, astute and sensitive. His innocent face doesn't give way to the fact that he knows the ways of the world. His sagacity is hidden by this a veil of humility and humor! He is great fun to be with. Caring and helpful. One should check out his blog for some food for thought. In this journey of life, the more hearts you win the richer you are, and I am sure he is going to be one of the richest! :)

S wrote a poem for me:)

At one corner of our class....
Sits a boy with great presence and splendid poise,
With heart of gold, he never goes loud
yet he stands out in the crowd!
To his diligence, we all salute
But ghissu title wont really suit,
A big movie fan & what a critic
Beware Rajeev Masand,your job is at risk!
He reads, he blogs & his opinion eminently rocks
You just can't ignore him when he talks.
Smart on thoughts, immense talent imbued.
That's why he got through the smartest route!!
His perseverance and modesty is rarest of all
In the future, he shall stand bright up and tall!!!
So on behalf of entire crew
Hey Pankaj, best wishes 4 u!!! :)
Thanks a lot :)

ThiNkiNg oF CrEaTiViTy...

You might have come across those funny Facebook quizzes. There is this one which says "Which profession do you belong to?". My cousin D got her result as "You belong to the Creative profession" and then she was lamenting the fact that why did she take take science as she ain't interested in it. I got the same result and she was surprised that how could I be creative as she thinks I am too scientific to be creative. Firstly, I wanted to tell her that I am not at all good at science. Scientists are such brilliant people who have the ability to question and tread a different path which sadly I do not possess :/ Secondly, even though I may not be a creative person, but her view of scientific people not being creative is absolutely lame. I think a lot of people in India even Facebook considers creativity as just singing, dancing, music,etc. Of course these are creative jobs but these are not the only creative jobs. One could be creative in almost anything one does. Even a simple power point presentation requires some amount of creative skill. Creativity is something that is innate and comes from within and it does no depend on the so called 'stream' as we put it. In fact, another cousin of mine Y who is a fashion designer from NIFT (and is a creative person) is from science background and I think it is more of an advantage than an obstruction to her as she could also incorporate scientific elements in her work which others might not be able to do. After all what is science? It is understanding of how life works.

It is wrong to associate creativity with such a narrow outlook as others think. Take another examples. A sofa-cum-bed. Isn't it creative genius to incorporate a sofa and bed in the same furniture item? Our cell phones' features- camera, FM, calls, GPS, mails- all in the same device.Isn't this creative? Playing even a cricket or tennis shot requires creative skill by the player. I am reminded of an episode of FRIENDS, where on Emma's first birthday, Rachel mistakenly orders a cake in the shape of a part of the male anatomy ( you know what I mean :P) and Ross used his ability to create that erotic cake into a bunny shaped cake!! Another friend of mine P who has this knack to write super funny status messages is creativity.Even the way my mom cuts salad in those zigzag patterns is creative. I could go on and on to prove my point. Anyway, how many times did I use the word creative in this post :P

The Countdown begins....

Will you support me Madam?

I can't wait for results on May 16. I have not been so excited even by my Board Results as I have been for them. Have followed this election very closely but still can't predict who will win. All polls saying UPA has a slight edge over NDA but the gap seems to be shortening even as we speak bookies predict a NDA government. Let us see what happens after a day. But one thing is for sure the Election Commission needs to be congratulated for such a brilliant poll process. The world watches in absolute amazement! The Commission arranged for polling booths even for a single voter in places like Ladakh and Gir. It is a stupendous process and whosoever wins, the Election Commission is a clear winner. So, who will be our next PM. Just one day more! Eagerly waiting and excited..the bazaar begins...

P.S.- Did you hear Kapil Sibbal's poem on Times Now? It was super funny :P

Of the Business of Forgiveness...

Berate me for saying this, but I have this fascination for the Gandhi family- Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka ( not including that thug Varun Gandhi ). People love to hate the Gandhis but I feel the opposite. Whatever they say, makes headlines but they talk sense. They are very smart and genuine people.They have a charisma which makes them so popular.Anyway, Barkha Dutt had an interview with Priyanka Gandhi and I couldn't wait to watch it. In one of my earlier posts, I had written about Priyanka'a meeting with her father's killer Nalini and that she had forgiven them. In the interview, she told about how she felt at that time and this made me think.

Barkha:How many years did you live thinking that maybe you wanted to meet Nalini before it happened?

Priyanka: Not very long actually, maybe a year and a half and so on. In the beginning when my father was killed, I didn't realise it, but I was furious.I was absolutely furious inside.I was furious not with particular individuals who killed him but I was furious with the whole world.

Barkha: When did you learn to recognise that rage?

Priyanka: It was a very slow process. it was realising that you're angry.I think this whole business of forgiveness is really at some level, we all consider ourselves victims. Maybe it can be a case of someone being nasty to us, our someone would have done something like kill someone we love, which is a bigger thing and then we consider ourselves victims. But the minute you realise that you're not a victim and the other person is as much victim as the same circumstance as you, then you can't put yourself in a position where you are anyone to forgive someone else because your victim hood has disappeared. And to me, people ask about non violence, I think true non violence is the absence of victim hood.

This last line she spoke, made me think. Yes when we are victims, there is anger in us and we have this frustration and a feeling to take revenge for something terrible someone did to us. This feeling of vengenace sparks discontent and brings a violent streak in us. So true non violence is absence of the feeling of being a victim. But it requires strength to accept that you are not a victim. Mahatma Gandhi gave us our independence by non violence and Priyanka Gandhi has also given us our emotional independence by non violence......